The Piano Lesson

In his second Pulitzer Prize winner, August Wilson fashions a haunting and dramatic work. At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano that has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, her exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dreams of buying the same Mississippi land that their family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the cash he needs to stake his future. Berniece refuses to sell, though, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy.